War. What are we doing still fighting wars into the 21st century? In WWI, 6 million soldiers and civilians were killed. In WWII, the numbers soared to an estimated 50 to 55 million people. During WWII, 6 million Jews were murdered in the Nazi death camps.
In the Vietnam War, more than 5 million North and South Vietnamese civilians were killed. Approximately 250,000 Vietnamese soldiers died. America lost 58,220 soldiers. In the War in Iraq, 4,486 U.S. soldiers died and so far, 2,345 have died in Afghanistan. More than 1 million soldiers were wounded in both wars. Those wars cost America 6 trillion dollars. And in spite of the carnage, Iraq remains entangled in a civil war and the Taliban and Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan are still undefeated.
Without even listing the statistics of the fighting in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Palestine, and other places, one begins to wonder what has war accomplished?
Japan was bombed into submission with the Hydrogen Bomb and Hitler and the Nazis were defeated. But since then, what do these wars mean? What purpose have they served? It is true we have not had a major terrorist attack since 911, but that one was years in the making. Is another one coming?
Political writer, Ron Jacobs, has put his finger on the primary reason for these recent wars. It is what he calls the creation of “a permanent war economy.” He says our economic existence now demands and depends on preparing for war and waging war. The money numbers are staggering. And the politics involved in sustaining this war economy has robbed our nation of a heroic vision, a moral value system, and an economy that maintains our infrastructure and works justly for all of our citizens.
When I see the pictures of Syria, where war has destroyed an entire country, not just the basic framework of the cities, but the people, I can’t believe the depravity of it all. How do intelligent humans allow this? All across the Middle East devastation reigns. War has left a wretched mess of dead bodies, broken lives, and shattered cities everywhere.
We have participated in that. In some instances, we have initiated the conflict. And it is becoming more and more clear our involvement has not been about peace, democracy, or even nation-building. It has been and continues to be about sustaining a permanent war economy. Using war as a means of enriching companies and individuals beyond any boundaries of need, decency, justice, or humanity.
The alleged recent gassing of Syrians is used by politicians and the media to feed our war economy. I have no idea who to believe. Do you? Do any of us?
Journalist Robert Fisk interviewed a Syrian doctor who was on the scene in Douma, Syria, the night of the alleged gassing. He treated numerous victims. This physician claims it was not a chemical agent but high winds and huge dust clouds caused by the constant shelling of the military that blew into the basements and cellars where families had crowded that created what he called “hypoxia,” or a loss of oxygen. The symptoms are quite similar to chemical poisoning.
The news videos do show adults and children having water poured on them and inhalers being used to help victims breathe. Those things would not help with a chemical attack. But whatever the cause, you cannot be human and watch those scenes of despair and not be outraged. And the media and the government then uses those images to deepen our commitment to a war economy.
Even president Trump was vulnerable to the images, raging on about the “animal” Assad and authorizing our military to join France and Brittan to bomb Syrian targets.
Can we ever know for sure what is actually going on in Syria? Who can we trust to tell us? Fox News? MSNBC? Sean Hannity or Rachel Maddow?
Will there never be any better solutions to our international conflicts than the merciless, savage taking of human life?
Was Plato right when he wrote, “Only the dead have seen the end of war”?
© 2018 Timothy Moody
Comments
Post a Comment